UDRP Filed Against Queen.com Owned by “Domain King” (Updated)

A UDRP was filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization against the high value Queen.com domain name. The case is WIPO Case D2017-0679.

Queen.com is a domain name that is owned by Rick Schwartz, who is commonly referred to as the “Domain King.” According to an article written in 2013 on Rick’s Blog, he was able to acquire the domain name in August of 1997. Rick’s company owns a ton of great dictionary .com domain names, and the monetization and sale of some of these domain names has made him millions of dollars.

In the aforementioned article about Rick’s purchase of Queen.com, he shared why his company acquired the domain name. Queen.com has many different meanings. Among those meanings, and the one mentioned by Rick in his article, is adult related. As such, Queen.com is currently forwarding to an adult website, where it is likely making Rick a considerable amount of income. It seems pretty clear that buying the domain name was a good decision, as it has earned “into the 6 figures because that traffic was very valuable.”

Estibot currently lists the value of Queen.com at $1.2 million, and I would be surprised if Rick would even consider selling the domain name at that price.

The complainant in this UDRP is listed as Knud Jepsen A/S. A Google search for this company shows that it is the operator of a flower business located in Denmark. The company appears to operate on the Queen.dk ccTLD domain name.

Based on what Rick wrote in 2013 and based on his business model, it seems pretty obvious to me that Rick’s acquisition of the domain name had nothing to do with this Danish flower company. As a part of the UDRP, the company would need to prove that the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith. I don’t see how this will be possible.

My guess is that the company either tried and failed to acquire the domain name from Rick, or they were unhappy about how Rick is using the domain name. Whatever the case is, I would be shocked if the complainant prevails in this UDRP. I will be monitoring the status of this UDRP and will share an update when the decision is published.

Update: The panel ruled in favor of the domain name owner, who will retain the domain name. The panel also ruled this was a case of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH). Andrew Allemann wrote about the decision this morning.

About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, LLC, a company that has sold seven figures worth of domain names in the last five years. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest.

18 COMMENTS

Until there are severe penalties for filing a UDRP in bad faith these type of bogus claims will continue. There is no downside for this flower company. Does anyone really think they ( the flower co.) care if they are found to be guilty of reverse hijacking?

What I’m saying is when Rick put gTLD’s on “DEATH WATCH” I went to the dentist the same day for a tooth implant and the doctor wanted to perform a Sinus Lift with INFUSE BoneGraft Stem Cells. I knew right then and there the stem cells would not stop growing and my sinuses and airways would fill with bone constricting my breathing and kill me. I got up and walked out a free man. I don’t need it. It’s not worth having a metal bolt jammed up in my sinus and messing around with “Stem Cells”.

There’s a fairly decent chance that they’ve been misguided by the very different .dk domain dispute systemm, where it’s much easier to be succesful with a complaint. Especially if the domain is not used/parked.

I’m Danish and I’ve never heard of that company before. But a quick lookup of their financial numbers showed me that they are decent sized company (http://www.proff.dk/firma/knud-jepsen-as/hinnerup/landbrug/13386420-1/). Their profits last year was just under 3 million USD from gross profits of 12 million USD. So they probably have som fight in them.

On the other hand that also means that they have money to pay in case compensation has to be paid.. I don’t know how likely it is that Rick will seek compensation from a foreign company, but if he needs help or information here’s an open inviation to contact me. He helped me once so I owe him one.

DomainInvesting.com is an award winning publication covering the specialized business of domain name investing, domain investment news and strategy. The publication is a news source for domain name sales, domain industry deals, and other topics related to domain investing and domain name branding.